Palestinian Islamic Jihad

The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, also called the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a terrorist organization from the Gaza Strip, founded in 1987. They are considered a terrorist group by the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, Israel, and the European Union.

History
The Harakat al-Jihad al-Islami fi Filastin was founded in 1979 by Fathi Shaqaqi after 8,000 members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood decided to fight actively against Israel, while they felt that the Brotherhood did not aid the Palestinian struggle. The group was inspired by the principles of the Iranian Revolution, but they were forced out of the Gaza Strip in 1987 and became a rebel terrorist group.

The group, aided by female fighters and aid workers, eventually moved on to form a group in North America under Sami al-Arian, a computer engineering professor at the University of South Florida. The PIJ lost its founder to a shooting with a Mossad unit in a Malta hotel in 1995, but is still a powerful movement.